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The Nature of the Self in Autonomy and Relatedness

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The Self: Interdisciplinary Approaches

Abstract

Psychology is, before all else, a life science. The inescapable and basic fact is that humans must count themselves among organisms, not so different in kind from the weeds that tenaciously grip the crevices, or the small creatures that persist in multiplying beneath the feet of our heavily treading civilization. Humans, too, grip the same earth and from it draw sustenance in an attempt to maintain and elaborate themselves. As Piaget (1971) once argued, “the very nature of life is constantly to overtake itself,” to adapt, to assimilate, to extend ever further. Humans, and all other animate entities (i.e., organisms) are differentiated from the inanimate by this inherent neg-entropic orientation in which they actively enter into exchanges with the environment and respond to perturbations in a manner that preserves and extends their integrity. This idea is reflected in the very term organism, which derives from the idea of organization (Jacob, 1976; von Bertalanffy, 1968).

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  1. Richard M. Ryan
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  1. Department of Psychology, Bronfman Science Center, Williams College, Williamstown, MA, 01267, USA

    Jaine Strauss  & George R. Goethals  & 

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Ryan, R.M. (1991). The Nature of the Self in Autonomy and Relatedness. In: Strauss, J., Goethals, G.R. (eds) The Self: Interdisciplinary Approaches. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-8264-5_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-8264-5_11

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